Yoga Classes by Sri Chinmoy Follower

 

შრი ჩინმოიJharna-kala, in one of Tbilisi’s narrow and old streets is a place where everyone can visit and get some more about yoga philosophy or just relax and talk to the owner Dito Saralidze.
 
Jharna-kala in Bengali means “fountain-art” and it is the name that Sri Chinmoy Indian Spiritual teacher and philosopher gave to his artwork. “The name Jharna-kala reflects the spontaneous fountain of creativity he experienced through meditation, expressed and revealed through an extraordinary output of paintings in a wide array of media and forms,” is written in the Chinmoy web-site. Dito Saralidze 31, is the follower of the man that had many other occupations and talents during his lifetime.
 
Sri Chinmoy born in 1931 in East Bengal, now Bangladesh, became a well-known spiritual teacher all around the world. According to his followers Sri Chinmoy wrote 1,500 books, 115, 000 poems and 20, 000 songs, crafted 200, 000 paintings and gave almost 800 peace concerts. During the concert he usually played 10-15 different instruments, though people say he could play up to 150 musical instruments. “And all that was the merit of his spiritual life, no one without great power of heart and soul can do the same,” says Dito about his master. The Chinmoy theory, about the heart power, is the theory which first intrigued Dito and encouraged him to spread the heart yoga theory among the people generally interesting with yoga.
 
“The power of a human being is in his soul and the place of the soul in a human heart, that’s why the power of heart is greater than the power of mind. All the possibilities we have, are thanks to the soul and mind and cleaning and stimulating the soul helps us to do everything we want, as Sri Chinmoy did fantastic things during his lifetime that at one sight is impossible for one man to do,” told Saralidze to the people who gathered at his place, what he calls Jharna-kala and is the room where twice a week he opens a door for everyone who wants to learn more about yoga. The walls are covered with paintings from Sri Chinmoy most of them are birds, as the master used to paint birds as a symbol of freedom. The room is in white, and the floor covered with carpets. Candle is lightning and the music performed by Sri Chinmoy is on.
 
The music was the first reason that Dito met with his future master. He attended the concert that Chinmoy held in January 2007 in Varna, Bulgaria and Dito being in a stressed state of soul decided to go there. For that time he knew nothing about that man. His Ukrainian friend whom he called in that tough period of life advised him to go in Chinmoy concert together and they went. “After the concert I felt unspeakable, indescribable, I felt my body easier than feathering and I don’t remember how I appeared in my hotel. But then I sobered and went back to the concert hall. I wanted to meet him, but he appeared busy. I sent him letters, asked to his people to arrange me audience and at last he let me in. We talked a lot, he explained me his meditation and so I became his follower,” remembers Dito that period of time. Soon they met in Saint-Petersburg, Russia and the new follower studied much about meditation from his master.
 
Before Saralidze met Sri Chinmoy he was fond of Yoga for seven years or more. “I loved to read Greek philosophers, but once I found a book of a Polish author about yoga and I was addicted to it. I began to search for yoga books and I bought enormous amount of them. At the same time I tried to find a master but there was no one in Tbilisi at that time, it was around 2000. Later an Indian master arrived in Tbilisi and he taught me Hatha yoga. When he left, I went on practicing it on my own,” says Dito. In 2005, he took a part in a reality-show “Geo Bar,” and lived about three months rounded up with cameras. He couldn’t meditate there. He didn’t win and when he tried to return back to his old life faced terrible stresses and disorders in him. Even Hatha yoga didn’t help him. That was the time when Sri Chinmoy came in his life.
 
“What I like in Chinmoy is that he dismisses all kind of body activities to reach the highness of your soul. It is not mind, but soul concentrated and, as the soul is everything in human being so the energy comes from heart to mind and not contrary. With the meditation of Chinmoy way, sitting putting hands together and silencing your soul and your mind is getting calmer and when the heart and mind are calmed down, then the furtive talents can come out from your inner world and you can do the best things in the world,” says Dito, sitting in the same order he explained.
 
Principles of meditation, he explains, are very simple. Silence and concentration on positive things a nice garden, rainbow and beautiful flowers, to imagine in your heart and visualization — are the main tips he gives to the people gathered in his room. Later one can do it at home in an appropriate place for meditation or everyone can come again and again at his place always welcome to get guests. “It’s my second time here but I can feel nothing important for now, I have serious stresses in my life and I will go on practicing here,” says forty-three year old Marina Mkhitariani. Another man Soso Phavlenishvili, appeared to search phenomenon in him, he wishes to reach perfection.
 
After discovering the new method of mediation, Dito says he found himself calmer and happier than ever. Sri Chinmoy died in October 2007, a month before Dito and his friends planned to hold his concert in Tbilisi. Later he made an exhibition of Chinmoys paintings and a year later he arranged a screening of his master’s some of the best concerts in Film House.
Anna Chichinadze
27.02.2009
 
გაზეთი "Georgia Today" Feb.27 - March 5, 2009. ISSUE #448